We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies is a novel by Tsering Yangzom Lama which was published in 2022. The book provides an answer to anyone who has ever seen a "Free Tibet" sign and wondered what it was all about. Lama tells the story of a family whose lives are turned upside down as a result of China's aggressive invasion and colonization of Tibet.
The story covers a chronology that begins in 1960, about a decade after the Chinese invasion. With stops along the way in the early 1970s and mid-1980s, the tale finally reaches its conclusion in the 21st century. At the center of the narrative are two sisters, Lhamo and Tenkyi, who are forced to become refugees in exile from their homeland. This long period reflects the reasoning behind those calls for China to "Free Tibet." The lives of these sisters are a microcosmic portrait of all those who have waited well over half a century for Tibet to reclaim its independence and freedom. While Lhamo settles in nearby Nepal in an attempt to hold fast to her native culture as best as possible, Tenkyi winds up moving halfway across the globe, settling in Canada with Lhamo's daughter, Dolma.
The story is separated into multiple parts according to the era in which the narrative takes place. That narrative is fragmented into multiple perspectives. This narrative structure mirrors the fractured experience of living in exile with no real hope of returning to a homeland, much less one that in any way resembles what it was before colonization. The lives of the sisters are episodic and disconnected. Because they have been forced out of their land, the exiled are forced to learn of their native culture in much the same way as the foreigners among whom they live in a state of alienation. Those who left Tibet and their progeny find themselves in the unnatural circumstance of appropriating knowledge of their heritage through discourse with academics and anthropologists. Racism and colonialist appropriation from the West take the form of a subplot about the attempt by Dolma to retrieve a statue called the "Nameless Saint" which she has been informed is an old family heirloom stolen by wealthy foreigners.
The episodic structure of the storytelling purposely prevents the novel from conveying a sense of unifying coherence. The stories of the two sisters feel as disconnected and fractured as their own different experiences in exile from a home they don't even know. This is the ultimate tragedy of colonialism. People opposing the invading armies are forced into exile and become permanent strangers in strange lands. The experience of forced displacement is similar to but not the same as other immigrant experiences. The book offers a glimpse into living as refugees from a country that for all practical purposes no longer even exists. Tibet falls under the complete oppressive domination of China and the Chinese colonialists make every effort to stamp out any remnants of the pre-existing Tibetan society. The utilization of multiple narrative perspectives is key to illuminating how colonialism divides the very soul of the nation and culture being taken over by the aggression of the more powerful invasive force.
Ultimately, the various stories being told through multiple perspectives serve to make those "Free Tibet" bumper stickers and posters more tangible. The novel succeeds in giving blood and flesh to those genuinely impacted by Tibet's utter loss of freedom and independence in the wake of the Chinese takeover. The bodies of the title become the point by which the tragedy of this Chinese aggression is measured rather than the essentially empty calls to return the country its freedom by those mostly ignorant of the horror behind the bumper stickers.
